Low Sex Ratios of Births in Areas at Risk from Air Pollution from Incinerators, as Shown by Geographical Analysis and 3-Dimensional Mapping

Abstract

Previous research in environmental and occupational health has suggested that fluctuations in the sex ratios of births might provide a useful early warning to the possible health effects of toxins or other stresses in the environment. To examine further this hypothesis, we investigated the sex ratios of births in an area in central Scotland which contained two incineration plants.

Analyses of the sex ratios, at various levels of geographical detail and using 3-dimensional mapping techniques, in the residential areas at risk from airborne pollution from these incinerators showed locations with statistically significant excesses of female births.